Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorScoring tickets to the first BTS concert in three years may be next-to-impossible, but plenty of fans of the global K-pop group were able to catch the Seoul-set show at their local cinema.In a rare, one-night-only event, HYBE and Trafalgar Releasing brought the concert to movie theaters across the country to blockbuster results.
At the global box office, the limited engagement of “BTS Permission to Dance on Stage: Seoul” raked in $32.6 million from 3,711 cinemas in 75 worldwide theatrical markets.
For context, some pandemic-era Hollywood movies struggled to match those ticket sales during their entire theatrical runs.Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst with Comscore, called those figures “astonishing” and “unprecedented.” “For a one-day gross to come in at this level, particularly the global number, is mind boggling and speaks to the power of a one-chance-only event to drive moviegoers to the cinema,” Dergarabedian said.Unlike “Break the Silence: The Movie,” a documentary about BTS stars RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook as they embarked on their 2019 tour, this weekend’s screening wasn’t a traditional feature film.
Instead, ticket buyers were treated to a live-stream — which was tape delayed in some locations given the time change — of BTS’s concert at Olympic Stadium in South Korea.In North America, “BTS Permission to Dance on Stage: Seoul” played in 803 theaters and earned roughly $6.84 million on Saturday.
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